Noobie Has Need A Of Concise Criteria Checklist!!! Tucson, AZ

[Brian Kimminau]

Hi Everyone!

I am interested in my local market, Tucson AZ. I love it here! The people are great, the weather is great and Tucson is generally nice to live in. A college town with military and an ever-increasing retiree population makes me set on my real estate ownership dreams. So, I have been devoting energy into learning about real estate, ground-up. After having been turned onto this website and the possibilities of real estate investing I have come across a need...

I recently finished reading: The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller, which helped me narrow my focus onto 2-4 unit multi-family properties for a buy and hold strategy. Ideally I would aggressively pay down the mortgage, refinance and either get a home equity loan to purchase another 2-4 unit MF or 1031 exchange into a larger deal. I would prefer to get into a property that needed a fair amount of work to be done because I have a basic knowledge of everything except electrical (few years under a general contractor (which would give me a greatly purposeful hobby)). Also, this would be my first purchase so I would be taking advantage of any and all incentives. 

This is where my need comes out. The previous paragraph messily explains my general desires, strategy, and criteria. But, is there a .pdf or some online worksheet that has a nice, concise list of real estate investment criteria? Something I could possibly have saved and shared out to people?

I've been googling a fair amount and haven't quite found what I'm looking for. Let me know if there is something out there!
One major upvote as a finder's fee!

Thanks!

[Bram Spiero]

Brian,

The problem with generalized lists is just that, they're general and don't take into account what is important to you.

Also, getting real estate criterea spoon fed to you makes the likely hood that you have only a shallow understanding of what they show likely.

Something that has worked for me is putting my own deal analysis spreadsheet together. It forced me to better understand how each indicator, rule of thumb or financial criterea is dependent on what data. Using conditional formatting, I can decide to concentrate on a particular criterea and see how that influences what properties look good and then adjust.

Grab a book like What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow by Gallinelli and work through using all of the financial measures he explains in the real world so that you get a practical understanding for how they work.

It's a lot more work than finding a PDF but I'm sure the effort will serve you well.

Good luck!

Bram